Director Says Lady Gaga Same-Sex Kissing Scene Cut From ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Because It ‘Got in the Way of the Moment’

Likelihood is you didn’t see Joker: Folie à Deux over the weekend as a result of the much-hyped sequel to the Oscar-winning 2019 Batman-adjacent movie vastly underperformed expectations with an estimated $40 million opening body; by comparability the unique raked in additional than $96 million and ended up grossing greater than $1 billion.

However even in the event you had been one of many courageous who ventured out to observe Joaquin Phoenix’s demented Arthur Fleck fall in love together with his equally felony-minded paramour Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn (Woman Gaga), what you didn’t see was a same-sex kiss between Gaga and a random girl. In response to EW, paparazzi pictures from the movie’s shoot appeared to point out a scene the place Gaga and an unnamed girl shared a young second.

Director Todd Phillips instructed the journal that he needed to lower that bit for an excellent motive. The scene was alleged to happen simply earlier than Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck arrives for a courtroom look attended by his former Arkham State Hospital ward mate Lee. Whereas strolling up the steps, Gaga does a musical quantity as she makes her option to the courtroom.

The unique shot had Gaga spending some protesters and laying her lips on a girl within the crowd — a transfer she improvised — however Phillips stated it simply didn’t work. “It had dialogue in it, and, swiftly, I wished it to be extra of a music and vibe second,” Phillips stated. “For that second to have performed, it wanted dialogue behind it. That means, the girl stated one thing, after which Gaga stopped and did this factor, and it simply type of received in the way in which of the second.”

The Hollywood Reporter dubbed Joker: Folie à Deux a “bomb,” saying the movie that turned the primary Hollywood comedian e book film ever to earn a D CinemaScore from audiences whereas vastly underperforming expectations regardless of costing nearly 3 times extra to make ($190 million) than the unique. The anticipated international debut for the opening weekend of the sequql is within the $121 million vary.

Take a look at a picture of the lower kiss under.